The Dark Knights

of Nairen Guild
Professions
Summary:
Players are free to select whatever professions appeal to them. Choices which benefit the guild economy will lead to faster advancement in guild rank.
Selecting Professions: 1. All guild members must select a combination of two primary professions by the time they reach level 8, or immediately upon joining the guild if they are recruited at a higher level. Members are responsible to work dilligently to attain the highest level possible for their current class level in each of these skills.

2. Players are encouraged to make their own selection of professions without regard to what is most useful to the guild (in keeping with the FPGS), but they must do so with the understanding that some selections will bring them greater or lesser opportunities for guild advancement. Players may desire to explore some specific aspect of the game with their character, may have some specific role playing reason for selecting a specific combination of professions, or may wish to optimize their character for solo play.

3. All guild members are expressly forbidden to attempt to impose a set of professions on new members or to make acceptance in the guild contingent on a specific selection. If the player asks for guidance in making their selection, guild members are permitted to inform the player of deficiencies in the guild's current coverage of the professions, including making specific suggestions for professions that are most needed at the time, but no pressure should be applied to force the player to select professions other than what the player will enjoy. Some selections carry benefits that other selections do not provide. It is up to each player to weigh those options for her/himself.

4. Players who do not belong to a supportive guild will usually select primary professions that best meet the needs of their character class. Magic users frequently select tailoring and enchanting to provide themselves with cloth armor, warriors often select mining and blacksmithing for similar strategic reasons. But as a member of a guild co-operative, you do not have the same concerns as a solo player because you do not need to practice a profession yourself to have the full range of its services available to you. This leaves you with the option to select professions that are best suited to

  • your character's class - exactly as would a solo player
  • your character's role playing persona
  • the overall needs of the guild economy

Players who choose to select professions that satisfy the overall needs of the guild will be promoted faster than players whose selection of professions does not consider what is most efficient for the guild. This is neither a punishment nor a subtle bit of pressure to make a specific selection, but simply a refection of the fact that any organization is most likely to reward the members who make decisions based on the good of the organization instead of their own needs.

Members are to use the Officers Note feature of the guild window to publicize their current level in all professions.

Combinations:

1. The primary professional skills are divided into two categories: gathering skills (herbalism, mining, and skinning) and production skills (alchemy, blacksmithing, leather working, tailoring, enchanting, and engineering). In normal play, it is generally the case that characters with production skills spend time waiting to accrue the resources they need to perform the associated production activities.

2. We use the following phrases to describe the four possible combinations of primary skills:

  • Natural Combination (herbalism and alchemy, mining and blacksmithing, mining and engineering, or skinning and leatherworking). This is the type of combination most often selected by solo players because it allows them to be relatively self-sufficient and gather their own components for the lower level recipes of the associated production skill. Players who select this combination type will be more self-sufficient than players who select any other combination type. This is the best option for players who think they may choose to leave the guild at some time in the life of their character. Selecting this combination type brings no special privileges from the guild.
  • Unnatural Combination (herbalism and any production skill except alchemy, mining and any production skill except blacksmithing/engineering, or skinning and any production skill except leatherworking). This type of combination would seldom be selected by solo players because there is very little overlap betweeen the resources that the character can gather and what they will need to perform their production skill. Selecting this combination type will force the player to be more involved in the exchange of resources with other guild members than selecting a natural combination. As such, it will provide the player with more role playing interactions and a modest increase in opportunities to earn advancement in guild rank.
  • Dual Gatherer (any combination of two gathering skills). This is the least glamorous of the combinations, but it also best serves the overall needs of the guild members. A player who chooses a natural combination generally cannot gather sufficient materials to keep her/his production skill level equal to her/his gathering skill level without a very focused effort to do so. All producers benefit by having another character dedicated to gathering additional materials needed to feed their production line, so the guild economy runs most efficiently if gathering skills outweigh production skills by at least 2:1. Higher ratios provide even more efficiency. Selecting this combination type brings the character the right to first priority for a complete set of the largest bags that can be produced by the guild to permit them the space needed to store the items they gather while adventuring, as well as the best opportunities to earn advancement in guild rank (especially at the lower levels). Any character who joins the guild above level 10 and who voluntarily chooses to change to a dual gatherer will be given special consideration for their advancement up to the rank of Contributor in recognition of their willingness to adapt their character's professions to the good of the guild.
  • Dual Producer (any combination of two production skills). This is the most glamorous of the combinations, but is also the most demanding of support from other guild members. The guild needs but one practitioner of each production skill, but to ensure availability it is our policy to have up to three total practitioners of each profession. The guild has already met its minimum needs in this area, so anyone who chooses a dual producer combination is not providing the guild with any benefit at all and will instead mostly serve as a drain on the guild economy as they use resources to advance within the fully covered profession. Players who wish to make this selection are free to do so, and will still be supported by the guild's gatherers, but will fall at the botttom of the priority list for allocation of the resources they need to practice their production skills regardless of the guild's normal policies for distribtion. A natural side effect of this policy is that these characters will also have the least opportunities to earn advancement in guild rank.

Any character who has attained 40 levels of class advancement while a member of the guild and who is at a guild rank of Patron or above is excepted from the above restrictions regarding dual producers if they obtain explicit permission from the Guild Master to make the transition. Having contributed unselfishly to the guild economy for that many levels earns that character the right to switch to a dual producer combination of their choosing and receive the resources needed to advance within those professions according to the standard guild policies for distribution of resources. Permission to make this switch will generally be granted upon request, with the understanding that the guild cannot afford to have all of its higher level gatherers choose to drop their gathering skills, because then there would be no one to provide the higher level resources that are needed to support the higher level production skills.

This policy is also a role playing consideration, in that it is natural for a higher ranking player to practice the more glamorous professions than to be seen digging in the dirt for herbs or ore. But the guild believes that all professions have equal dignity and that for its economy to run smoothly it needs more gatherers than producers, so i will try to find a way to allow special honors to accrue to those who continue to practice their gathering skills when they could have chosen to switch to a more glamorous profession.
Secondary Professions:

1. All members are required to take all three secondary skills.

2. Fishing is a gathering skill, while cooking and first aid are production skills, but these secondary skills are not considered as gathering or production skills for the rules outlined above.
Declaring Professions: 1. Members are required to declare their professions and current level in each of them in the Guild Officer Note area of the guild window. This window has limited space, so the following conventions will be used to abbreviate the primary profession names:
  • Al = Alchemy
  • Bs = Blacksmithing
  • Ec = Enchanting
  • Eg = Engineering
  • He = Herbalism
  • Lw = Leatherworking
  • Mi = Mining
  • Sk = Skinning
  • Ta = Tailoring

2. List your professions in the same order they are displayed in the Skills tab of your Character window, separated by semicolons. Here is an example, but any unambiguous use of punctuation or abbreviation is equally valid:

  • Ec 120; He 175; 255; 127; 32

Do not use the abbreviation 'En'. Ths abbreviation is ambiguous, as it could meean either Enchanting or Engineering.

3. No abbreviations are needed to define the secondary professions, simply list your skill for each of them in order. If you do not take one or more of the secondary skills, enter a value of zero for that skill.

4. Failing to keep this information current will not bring a specific penalty, but the data displayed here will be used to determine guild advancement and distribution priority. If you don't keep it current, you may miss a distribution or promotion that should rightfully come to you.